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Monday, November 16, 2015

Wow. This is my 767th post. I've been blogging since 2006. Admittedly I dont post as often as I used to but I'm still at it. Kind of amazing when so many blogs seem to be dropping by the wayside.

So our core family just returned from a short vacation and it was good. We were the pasty white Oregonians on the beach; limping over the sharp lava and laughing at ourselves.

We took a submarine ride.

Posed for selfies.

Got mosquito bitten.

Spent part of every day journaling, painting and reading.

Enjoying the big house up on a coffee farm that we rented through Air B & B. (Thank you, Shelly Shinjo for that recommendation.) It's called the Black Manta Farm if any of you are interested in staying away from the tourists on the beach.

We were spoiled by the bidets and heated toilet seats.

John tried to tell us we were on "Das Boot" but we didn't let him get away with that.

We all snorkled and a couple of us took turns on the paddle boat. Man, that was fun!

Our ancient equipment worked as good as ever.

Vacations are always over too soon, aren't they?

So a few journal pages.

While I was in Hawaii I read all of Elizabeth Gilbert's book Big Magic and I loved it. She says all the things that I teach; we can all do it if we want to, this is our legacy as smart monkeys, to be able to make things and use our imaginations. To create art and to create the lives we dreamed of as children. So thank you Elizabeth for your encouraging and generous book.

Another book I've just read is Lynda Barry's latest book, Syllabus. I love Lynda and have all her books. She is sooo advanced without being dry; explains how the brain and imagination works as only an artist could explain it. I wish I was a student in her class although I fear my brain was too warped by the kind of art education I had to ever really get over it. I don't blame any of my schools; it is really just the messages of this culture. The messages that I try to undo in my classes.

I love to see how people are breaking free from old ways of thinking and bravely working it out for themselves. Slowly and surely each one of us moves the best we can toward truth and beauty. That is my prayer. I too see the frustration and hopelessness that moves some to acts of violence but am grateful that in such an enormous population only a few are so misguided.

And that's about it. I cry for injustice but I believe most of us live out our days in kindness and love.

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Judy Wise is an Oregon artist and teacher who has worked as a printmaker and painter for four decades. She has exhibited and taught in the USA, Mexico, Australia, Indonesia, Spain and the Netherlands.
Follow her on Instagram at judywiseart